Judging this game as a stand alone... It seems like a different take on the Pokemon games. But i like it! :)
In the beginning it was all a little overwhelming to take in, for my first Dragon Quest game anyways, i was thinking "Oh gosh, so many creatures, and i can only have a party of 3?!" A bit later i discovered that you can indeed own as many monsters as you choose, considering you can keep them in 'storage'... :)
You explore several different islands. Each with it's own ranking in creatures and strengths. Infant Isle, this is the first exploratory island. A lush, green island full of small monsters. Here are the weakest monsters, examples include the Slime and Draky.
The second island is called Xeroph Isle, a dusty sand bowl, and the island in which i leveled up on quite a bit on, in the first part of the game. Here on this island you will encounter many things, including some interesting story line, and some new monsters; including Heal Slimes and Komodos.
From this point you must explore the other 6 islands for the 2 main parts of the story line. While playing you collect neat items to add additional skill points to your favorite or strongest, or even your weakest monsters. You can also synthesis monsters, which is highly recommended by some of the BGM characters.
Overall this game is pretty addictive if you are like me and stay up all night playing your DS while everyone else is asleep, Haha, or if you like these types of games. This game was my 2nd Dragon Quest game, well, side games... My first game was the Rocket Slime game. But anyways, this game is pretty fun, time consuming, but creating the strongest and best team of monsters to win the Monster Scout Challenge is motive enough to play! Lets go!